Just wanted to hop in real quick to wonder aloud about one of the more interesting segments of nesgirl's post. What exactly is your meaning in saying asexuals will save the world with pathogenesis? Do you really think that the artificial development of disease will be progressive? Or do you have your medical terminology confused (I desperately hope so)? If so, it's important to know that pathogenesis refers to the nature and means of pathology's incunabula; in essence, a disease's etiology. Patho-disease, genesis-beginning, you see. How will this save the world?

Look at the shit that happened in France recently. Twelve people were murdered in the name of prophet Muhammad and Allah, an imaginary supernatural being. And still people want to protect Islam, the ideology that makes people favour fictions over real people.

If a group of unhinged kids listen to heavy metal and beliece Satan speaks to them through the lyrics of Judas Priest, the band is taken to court after the goons execute their music-inspired killing spree. Everybody knows Judas Priest are artists, not self-proclaimed messiahs who purported to bring us divine or diabolical revelations. We know what they do is merely a form of art not to be taken seriously. It's like watching a horror film!

But Islam, with the Quran and the hadith, is more than that. It claims to be the final revelation from God and because of this it is profoundly more influential than some heavy metal band. People do not have to be unhinged to commit atrocities in its name. Martyrdom is glorified.

Now, if this hideous religion isn't going away any time soon (it would be great if it could be banned) then a reform might be a good step towards the right direction as Nawaz from Quilliam proposed. But it seems that Muslims who want to see their religion reform like Christianity are completely powerless to sway the more radical masses.

I also remember seeing a link from Rebecca on the Fermi Paradox thread warning the world against capitalism because it may very well drive us to extinction. Perhaps a worldwide socialist government is in order, with equal distribution for everyone, and people will just have to deflate their egos and swallow their pride.

I considered making a thread about the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but we've had so many threads discussing the evil regression and awkward barbarism of religion (particularly Islam) before, and I didn't see where we would go with it.

But let me say that the incident has left me feeling both filled with renewed outrage and also a hint of optimism. I don't know if any of you are on Twitter, but everyone and their grandmother has been tweeting and raging over the tragedy, most of it being led by the leaders of the New Atheism movement. Various hashtags pertaining to the incident have been trending nonstop since the attack, including the brusque and perhaps misguided #KillAllMuslims. Many moderates have said that we're no better than Islamists for getting something like that trending, but the way I look at it, angrily getting something idiotic and primitive trending on the internet is far better than storming a satiric magazine and murdering fourteen people.

The New Yorker published an article titled "The Blame for the Charlie Hebdo Murders" in which they specifically stated that the real hand behind the attack was not a few disgruntled, unbalanced persons, but a flawed, violent ideology that encroaches directly upon the proliferation and well-being of existing society. I feel that perhaps this time around the secular world is waking up. We've had evolution deniers, global warming deniers ... now we have jihadist deniers. But maybe they're a dying breed. Christopher Hitchen quotes have been circulating like virus. One reads "ISLAMOPHOBIA: A word created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons." The shouts of "This is not Islam" were definitely drowned out and reduced to a feeble whimper by the worldwide inflammation, including the rallying of one hundred thousand French citizens the night of the attack.

This case has a few similarities with the Kim Jong-un incident. Freedom of satire, criticism, and open mockery (particularly of religious dogma) is one of the largest issues of our time. But religion is for some reason set aside from all other bodies of knowledge and thought and placed on a sublime, untouchable pedestal. It is one of the few areas in which we genuinely allow censorship. I'm not allowed to be seen carrying around a copy of Dawkins's "The God Delusion" in school! And what would they say if I had been carrying about a Bible or a Qu'ran?

I totally agree about global socialism and the death of chauvinism and patriotism--ideas that are synonymous and equally nonsensical. I think the dissolving of international borders and the implementation of paradigm shifts towards thinking not as an American or a North Korean but as a human will be a tremendous stride for humanity. No more ethnocentrism, considerably less violence and regression. I think Sam Harris said something along the lines of "This will make it so that China going to war with America will make as much sense as New York going to war with Virginia." That's the basic idea.

Great post, man! That is like a breath of fresh air to me and I'm glad that the Hitchensian fever is spreading. That quote is so true and I do remember him saying that somewhere. I also watched a discourse with him and John Haldane at a university. The Hitch pretty much predicated shit happening in Russia and he described the strife in the Middle East as "clown wars."

It's about time the secular world took steps in waking up. The phrase, "Islam is a religion of peace" insults the families of the victims who died because of religiously barbaric fiction. Islam does not promote humanism. It is not an ideology that promotes love. Quite the contrary. It promotes hatred and discrimination against other ethnic groups. It promotes submission (the very meaning of "Islam" in Arabic is "submission") and totalitarianism.

It poisons everything and it's not romantic.

"Empty cognizance of one taste, suffused with knowing, is your unmistaken nature, the uncontrived original state. when not altering what is, allow it to be as it is, and the awakened state is right now spontaneously present."